Cross Country Stories

When I first started flying, the idea of cross country (X-C)  flying seems to risky.. I just wanted to launch, fly nearby, then land in the landing zone (LZ) associated to the launch.  Every site has an associated landing zone.

 As it turned out, when you were flying, you found a major thermal and got high, it no longer seemed necessary to stay close to the LZ, one could venture out and view the country and then fly back to the LZ.. but then why go back to LZ anyway.? . there are plently of places to land .. 

My first cross country flight was at Woodstock VA in about 2000.  I flew 10 miles north along the ridge to the end intending to fly back.  However when I got to the end I lost lift and found myself with no safe way to fly back without risking flying into the trees, so I decided, what the heck?, I will just fly past the end of the ridge and look for a good landing field.  I proceeded down wind over route 55 with had plenty of open fields adjacent.  After flying a few miles, prentending I was a real airplane, but getting lower, I saw a good field with a small pond at one end, which meant I could land into a slight upgrade.  So I approached and landed. Interestingly there were 2 horses in the field which were intrigued by what they were witnessing.  The  started to run in circle around me and slowly approached, trying to figure out what this thing was.. the realized it was a human and saunteured away.

Another of my first X-C flight occurred at Highland flight park .  I thermalled up pretty high and, without a plan, decided to fly away downwind.  I flew about 8 miles and ended up in a field in a town called Goldsboro .. There was a store nearby and I went inside to get my exact location.  The store manager said he saw me fly in and asked where I was from .. he volunteered to drive me back when the store closed in about an hour.  When people came in the store, he would introduce me as a man who came from the clouds. 

Two years later, I again flew to  Goldboro where I travelled for a while with a flock vultures, always fascinating to fly with a flock of birds.

My best X-C flight happenned in 2007 at Woodstock.  There was good lift on the ridge and I was flying for about an hour gradually getting  higher as I learned the air flow that particular day over the ridge.   It is dangerous to fly over the back of the mountain at Woodstock because there are no good landing fields  until you cross the mountain behind the ridge.   However I eventually found myself very high and decided to go.  I easily flew over the next mountain and found myself in flat land looking down at the south fork of the Shenendoah river.  Then out of nowhere I flew into a fierce thermal and my vario started screeming.  I took it up for a half a minute then I lost my nerve as the cloud overhead was dark and I was afraid of getting sucked into the darkness of the cloud.   I still regret not riding up into the cloud, as it was not a rain clould and I easily could have survived it ( in retrospect ) . 
    However, I had some extra altitude and time, I proceeded to the next mountain where skyline drive is.  I was not going to make skyline drive so flew along the river for a while until I landed in park land.   I walked about a mile out, and called another pilot who we had agreed to recover me if I flew out. 

One of the most interesting X-C stories happenned to a couple of friends, Judy and Ed Reno, at Woodstock.  Both of them ended up in the same field about 30 minutes apart.  There was a wedding going on in the field and they were treated like visiting celebrities and given wine and food.  The couple getting married considered it a good omen that hang glider pilots would see fit to show up at the wedding, though it more a matter of wind currents dictating the flight of these 2 pilots.

The greatest east coast X-C story of all time happenned to the great pilot, Rick Niehause.  He went out one day to fly at Bill's hill in Pennsylvania, telling his wife he would be home in the evening.  Bill's hill is near Breezewood PA.  As things turned out he got lift and decided to follow some birds out over flat lands for an X-C flight.  As he got further the lift became very very good and he continue to fly 160 miles into Ohio after a 5 hour flight.  It was getting late and he was getting tired and decided to land over a lake.  He landed in the middle of a major picnic.. and was treated as a celebrity and interviewed by the news paper.